Impressions

Excuse my ego - but I am quite impressed by myself. But I actually am easily impressed by other people; Sometimes it is because they have something I never had: the goth kids next door impress me - they are what I never dared to be and they have in their own way set me examples. Sometimes I am impressed because people have what I have - like the nerds who are into some movie genre - they have the fierce dedication that I have for somethings.

But often what blows me away is someone who is owned by nothing (or at least a minimal) - people with wings.

I got in the plane to Japan, with a 28 page paper to read, a 20-minute talk to write. My next-seat-neighbor who happened to hear me exchange pleasantries with a colleague in French, struck up a conversation. I was like 'well this can not be too bad, I get to practice my French'. But it turned out to be much more - he used to be a journalist with Radio-Canada and had lived in several Asian countries and Australia since he was working on Asia-Pacific news for Radio-Canada, has been living in Japan for some years now and was a Québecois who had moved to Vancouver (I love Quebecois, but when it comes to mobility they are so scared to move out of Québec - so Quebecois who moved to Vancouver are already a plus, but he also said when he thinks of someday when he might retire he thinks of Vancouver). Of course now my talk and paper were not happening. Here was a big-me; well actually if I could be half as cosmopolitan as he is by the time I am his age (which I am guessing is not too much more than me), I'd consider that an accomplishment. I am so used to people asking me if I ever plan on putting down roots and lately I have thought about this from time to time. And then there was this guy, who not only did not ask me this, but also like me moved across the globe to a completely different culture to which he grew up in and lived in even more places than I did.

chaque fois que j'ai déménagé dans une nouvelle ville

he said,

je me suis dit, l'autre ville est terminée

"But you have friends there?" I asked. "Oh of course, but they are not part of that city"... hard as it was to understand, I liked the sound of it... and that night I was, for the first time, really glad that I was selling the condo in Montréal - somehow, all those memories that were created in that condo would stay with me - I didn't want some condo to own me. And I thought of Minneapolis, I thought of Kandy... the people I still keep in touch with, who are themselves not in Minneapolis or Kandy anymore... and I would love for all those people to be with me in one place... but in my mind "Minneapolis est terminée, Kandy est terminée", but the fond memories remain. The other cities were too short anyway.

And finally I was ready to let Montréal go - I might return back there one day, but now the "when I go back to Montréal" is replaced by "if I go back to Montréal"... To the Montréal friends who might be reading this, it doesn't ever mean I am throwing away our memories, quite the contrary... but Montréal can not own me.

Later some colleague commented in front of the others, "I saw you chatting away with your neighbor throughout the whole flight - who was that?" and in front of her and my bosses, I admitted that I have in my head to one day become a journalist. And the next day I was sitting in the collaboration meeting, seriously thinking of switching in to journalism and strangely it made me want to do very well here - it was going to be my last year or two in physics (I am still trying to decide if this is a sleep deprived decision or not). Like he said "I always went to a new country with a 1 year assignment, sometimes it got extended, but when I went in, it was like I just had one year to absorb this place".

And even in Vancouver, where they are not a majority, it would be Québecois who would make me feel most at home.

Everyone has a story

he said at some point referring to the potential even for small time journalists

the question is, do we have enough curiosity to find out.